Electrical terminal box with removable terminal plates

ABSTRACT

The present device includes a housing means comprising a base wall and two upright walls, each of the latter two walls having a receiving channel disposed horizontally along the length thereof. In addition, the present device includes a plurality of terminal plates whose dimensions enable them to readily slide into said receiving channels and upon which there can be mounted various forms of electrical devices such as female plug receptacles, toggle switches, lamps, fuses and the like. Each of said electrical devices is respectively wire-connected by a readily disconnectable means from the underside of each terminal plate to wires of others of said electrical devices. The chain of connected electrical devices is connectable to a power supply.

United States Patent 1191 Chen [ Nov. 26, 1974 ELECTRICALTERMINAL BOXWITH 1 REMOVABLE TERMINAL PLATES [76] Inventor: Tung Chang Chen, 138Wooded Ln., Villanova, Pa. 19085 22 Filed: Aug. 29, 1973 21 App1.No.:392,4l4

{52] US. Cl. 3l7/120, 174/53, 317/117 [51] Int. Cl. H02b l/04 [58] Fieldof Search 317/99, 112, 117, 118,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,200,244 8/1965 Meyer174/48 3,461,349 8/1969 Meyer 317/120 3,585,456 6/1971 Phillips 317/1123,728,470 4/1973 Maier 174/53 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,245,4337/1967 Germany 317/112 Primary Examiner-Robert K. Schaefer AssistantExaminer-Gerald P. Tolin Attorney, Agent, or Firm-William E. Cleaver [57] ABSTRACT The present device includes a housing means comprising abase wall and two upright walls, each of the latter two walls having areceiving channel disposed horizontally along the length thereof. Inaddition, the present device includes a plurality of terminal plateswhose dimensions enable them to readily slide into said receivingchannels and upon which there can be mounted various forms of electricaldevices such as female plug receptacles, toggle switches, lamps, fusesand the like. Each of said electrical devices is respectivelywire-connected by a readily disconnectable means from the underside ofeach terminal plate to wires of others of said electrical devices. Thechain of connected electrical devices is connectable to a power supply.

3 Claims, 1 Drawing Figure l ELECTRICAL TERMINAL ox wmff REMOVABLETERMINAL PLATES BACKGROUND In laboratory activities, job shop activitiesand the like, it is often desirable to have an electrical terminal boxwhich can be used as a means to provide electrical power to drills,lathes, electric saws, heaters, radios, oscilloscopes, electric meters,breadboard circuits and a host of other items. In such uses, it veryoften is desirable to have a switch beside a female plug and in controlthereof so that when the device which is receiving the electrical power;e.g. an oscilloscope, is connected to the female plug, it can beeffectively disconnected by simply slipping the toggle switch. Further,such uses often employ lamps to advantage by connecting the lamps toindicate that the device using the power is in fact still connected to ahot line. In addition, such uses often employ fuses to protect thedevices requiring the power. All of these interfacing elements; i.e.,the female plugs, switches, lamps, fuses and the like are mostconveniently mounted in a terminal box.

In the prior art these terminal boxs were custom made to a great extentand in cases where the box was not custom made it was devoid of anyflexibility. Flexibility becomes important when for a job shop situationor a laboratory situation the need changes from two female plugreceptacles and two controlling switches to four female plug receptaclesor in the alternative three female plug receptacles and one fuse. In theprior art, once the terminal box was fabricated and there was a need fora change, the cover plate had to be removed and the entire assembly hadto be reworked and remounted. In addition, in the prior art, the cost ofsuch terminal boxes is substantially higher than the present inventionbecause the manufacturer cannot build a good inventory. In short themanufacturer does not know what combinations of electrical terminals theuser is going to order. Since it is not economical for the manufacturerto mass produce the prior art terminal boxes, his unit price is higherthan if he produced the units in large quantities. The present inventionlends itself to the economical mass production of terminal boxes.

SUMMARY The present device employs modular electrical tenninal units;i.e., a plurality of plates with electrical devices mounted thereon arefitted into a housing. Various combinations of electrical elements aremounted on a plate and a plurality of these plates are assembled so thatthe overall terminal box is made up of the overall combination ofelectrical devices on the plates. In other words, when a particulararray of electrical devices or terminals is desired, the proper units(or combinations of elements) are selected and assembled in the housing.Accordingly, a relatively large inventory of plates or units can beproduced to be assembled in these particular arrays, but the arrays neednot be assembled until the terminal boxes are ordered by the ultimateuser. In addition the units are connected one with another by readilydisconnectable means (such as twisting the lead wires between units andputting caps thereon). This feature enables flexibility for the user orpurchaser because he can change or alter his terminal box by simplydisconnecting the units and replacing the units he no longer needs withunits that he now wants to use.

The objects and features of the present invention will be betterunderstood from the following description taken in conjunction with thedrawing which depicts an exploded view of the terminal box with twomountable plates.

Consider the FIGURE wherein there is shown a housing device 11 made upof a base wall 13, a vertical wall 15 and another vertical wall 17. Itwill be noted that the vertical wall 15 has a receiving channel 19therein while the vertical wall 17 has a receiving channel 21 therein.It should also be noted in the drawing that there is a terminal plate 23as well as a terminal plate 25.

On the terminal plate 23 there is mounted a first female plug receptacle27 and a second female plug receptacle 29. The wires for the femaleplugs 27 and 29 are on the underside of the terminal plate 23. Thefemale plug receptacle 29 is serially connected to the toggle switch 31so that when the toggle switch 31 is turned to the On position thefemale plug receptacle 29 will be capable of delivering electrical powerto a device which is connected thereto such as an oscilloscope or anelectrical drill or the like.

In like fashion the female plug receptacle 27 has wires not shown on theunderside of the terminal plate 23 serially connected to the toggleswitch 33 so that when the toggle switch 33 is thrown to the On positionthe female plug receptacle 27 will be considered as a source of power toan electrical device.

It can be noted in the drawing that terminal plate 25 has a female plugreceptacle 35 mounted thereon as well as a fuse device 37, a lamp 39 anda toggle switch 41. The toggle switch 41 as well as the female plugreceptacle 35, and the fuse 37 are serially connected underneath theterminal plate 25 by wires not shown. The lamp 39 can be connected inparallel across the receptacle 35. In this arrangement, when the toggleswitch 41 is turned On the female plug receptacle 35 will be availablefor electrical power and at the same time the device to which it isproviding the power will be protected by the fuse 37. In addition whenthe toggle switch 41 is turned on by virtue of the separate connectionthereto, the lamp 39 will be lit and hence indicating that the plug 35is available for power. It is very often the practice to use terminalplate 25 as the master plate with all of the remaining terminal platesconnected therethrough. Hence when switch 41 would be turned on, theentire box would be energized.

It will be noted in the drawing that the wires 43 which are connected tothe toggle switch 33 and the wires 45 which are connected to the toggleswitch 31 are connected in parallel with the wires 47 which are con-'nected to the toggle switch 41. The wires are simply twisted togetherand are covered by the caps 49 and 51. If terminal plate 25 were to beused as the master tenninal plate then switches 33 and 31 would be wiredin parallel and connected serially through switch 41 and to the returnside of the line. The caps 49 and 51 are the normally accessiblebakelite or hard plastic caps which keep wires from shorting out oneagainst another. The wires 53 are connected from the power line 55 tothe toggle switch 41 and in parallel to the toggle switches 33 and 31.The power line 55 is of course available for electrical power throughthe plug 57 or other arrangements can be made. It should be furthernoted that when the terminal box is complete the end plate 59 secures aleft hand end while the end plate 61 secures the right hand end. Theseplates 23 and 25 can be simply slid into the receiving channels 21 and19 with a rather secure fit or can be mounted with screws which passthrough the hole 63 in the respective plates into the receiving holes 65and the housing.

When the terminal box is assembled the plates 23 and 25 are pushed intothe receiving channels 21 and 19, followed by the end plates 59 and 61.It will be noted that there is sufficient room in the housing 11 topermit the wires 45, 43, 47 and 53 and the additional wires not shownwhich connect up the various electrical elements to hand loose in thelower portion of the terminal box. lf it should become necessary toreassemble or to change the need of the terminal box use, the plates 25and 23 can simply be removed by removing the end plate 59, disassemblingthe wires, by unscrewing the protective caps 49 and 51 and simplyremoving the one or both of the terminal plates. Thereafter, some otherterminal plate or terminal plates can be put into the terminal box andsome new combination of electrical devices such as four female plugreceptacles or three female plug receptacles and a fuse or othercombinations of switches, lamps, fuses, etc. can be mounted in thehousing of the terminal box to provide a new combination. Some of suchother terminal plates are illustrated by plates 69 and 71. Plate 69 hastwo plug outlets 73 and 75 which are respectively fused by fuses 74 and76. Such a plate enables sensitive equipment which will be energizedfrom plugs 73 and 75 to be carefully fused to prevent damage. Plate 71has a toggle switch 77, a fuse 78, a plug outlet 79 and a rheostat 80.This plate would be particularly useful for controlling the speed of amotor. The flexibility of the modular terminal box becomes quiteapparent.

lt should also be understood that this flexibility lends itself to easyand economical fabrication. For instance, the manufacturer can make up anumber of terminal plates with popular combinations of electricaldevices mounted thereon. Accordingly, a reasonably large inventory ofthese tenninal plates can be fabricated and their unit price accordinglyis reduced. When there is an order for a particular combination ofelectrical devices, or a particular array of terminal plates, the

proper plates are simply chosenfrom inventory and readily assembled inthe housing 11 of the terminal box.

Now it should be understood that while the drawing shows only fourterminal plates in the exploded view, there can be any combination ofnumber of terminal plates depending upon the size of the housing 11 thatis fabricated. For instance if the user wants four terminal plates thenthe size of the housing 11 is increased to accommodate four terminalplates such as terminal plates 23, 25, 69 and 71. The fact that thepresent terminal box can be so readily assembled of course provides forthe flexibility or the changing of terminal plates and secondly providesfor an economical fabrication of this terminal box.

What I claim is:

l. A modular electrical terminal box comprising in combination: ahousing means having a base wall and two upright walls, each of said twoupright walls having a receiving channel, forming a pair of receivingchannels, disposed horizontally along the length thereof and disposed asubstantial distance from said base wall; a plurality of terminalplates, each having an upper side and a lower side and each of which hasedges formed to readily slide into and along said pair of receivingchannels, each of said terminal plates having its said edges disposedwithin said receiving channels with its upper side facing away from saidbase; a plurality of electrical devices mounted on the upper side ofeach of said terminal plates and having connecting wires protruding fromsaid lower side of each of said terminal plates; first and second endpieces each having at least one section formed to fit into said pair ofreceiving channels and further formed to be removably secured to saidhousing, and each having its said section disposed within said receivingchannels.

2. A modular electrical terminal box according to claim 1 wherein thereis further included electrical current conducting means connected to atleast one of said electrical devices and further adapted to be connectedto a source of electrical power.

3. A modular electrical terminal box according to claim 1 wherein saidelectricacl devices include toggle switches, lamps, female plugreceptacles and fuses.

1. A modular electrical terminal box comprising in combination: a housing means having a base wall and two upright walls, each of said two upright walls having a receiving channel, forming a pair of receiving channels, disposed horizontally along the length thereof and disposed a substantial distance from said base wall; a plurality of terminal plates, each having an upper side and a lower side and each of which has edges formed to readily slide into and along said pair of receiving channels, each of said terminal plates having its said edges disposed within said receiving channels with its upper side facing away from said base; a plurality of electrical devices mounted on the upper side of each of said terminal plates and having connecting wires protruding from said lower side of eaCh of said terminal plates; first and second end pieces each having at least one section formed to fit into said pair of receiving channels and further formed to be removably secured to said housing, and each having its said section disposed within said receiving channels.
 2. A modular electrical terminal box according to claim 1 wherein there is further included electrical current conducting means connected to at least one of said electrical devices and further adapted to be connected to a source of electrical power.
 3. A modular electrical terminal box according to claim 1 wherein said electrical devices include toggle switches, lamps, female plug receptacles and fuses. 